Gender schema and prostate cancer: Veterans' cultural model of masculinity

Coming to terms with disease, chronic illness, and aging may be challenging for men who adhere to an inflexible gender schema. In this study of elder U.S. veterans' ideas about masculinity, we find that prostate cancer patients reaffirm a strongly moral normalizing discourse about "being a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Medical anthropology 2003-04, Vol.22 (2), p.175-204
Main Authors: Stansbury, James P., Mathewson-Chapman, Marianne, Grant, Kathryn E.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adaptation, Psychological
Aged
Anthropology
Cancer
Case-Control Studies
Cognition
Cognitive Methods
Culture
Gender
Gender Identity
Hospitals, Veterans
Humans
Illness
Interviews as Topic
Male
Masculinity
Medical anthropology
Medical treatment
Men - psychology
Narratives
Prostate Cancer
Prostatic Neoplasms - complications
Prostatic Neoplasms - psychology
Quality Of Life
Reference Values
Sexual Dysfunctions, Psychological - complications
Sexual Dysfunctions, Psychological - psychology
Southeastern United States
Urinary Incontinence - complications
Urinary Incontinence - psychology
Veterans
Veterans - psychology
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Summary:Coming to terms with disease, chronic illness, and aging may be challenging for men who adhere to an inflexible gender schema. In this study of elder U.S. veterans' ideas about masculinity, we find that prostate cancer patients reaffirm a strongly moral normalizing discourse about "being a man" yet tend to separate roles and values from male physical and sexual attributes. Using systematic data collection methods taken from cognitive anthropology, we map veterans' schema of masculinity and examine the relative importance that cancer patients and non-patients give to gender attributes. The results demonstrate the complementarity between cognitive and narrative approaches in medical anthropology. This research also suggests the hypotheses that (1) coming to terms with iatrogenesis may involve a subtle reformulation of masculinity and that (2) men with a fixed view of masculinity may have worse health outcomes than do those who accept the changes accompanying their treatment for prostate cancer.
ISSN:0145-9740
1545-5882
DOI:10.1080/01459740306765